WHL alum Zach McPhee strikes a chord with rising country music career

Vernon, B.C.- Zach McPhee’s musical roots run deep.

He grew up surrounded by it, with his father and older brother on guitar, his mom singing in a choir, and even grandparents who sang and played keyboard.

It even helped him conquer early insecurities as a child.

“I had a stutter growing up to the point where I was so nervous and anxious to do things like presentations in front of my peers,” McPhee explained. “I went and saw a speech therapist for probably two or three years, and one of the big techniques that he was teaching me to do was to sing my phrases together. When you sing, you don’t necessarily stutter, because everything is kind of flowing. So that was a huge technique for me to learn about life, but I think it also drew me towards singing as a place of comfort.”

These days, the first thing his 14-month-old son, Mylo, wants in the morning is music, as he toddles over to a speaker and points at it until something starts to play- preferably, his dad’s songs.

While WHL fans may remember him for his on-ice exploits with the Everett Silvertips, Tri-City Americans and then-Kootenay ICE, McPhee has established himself as a rising star in the Canadian country music scene.

He won the 2024 SiriusXM Top of the Country competition, performed at major events like Canadian Country Music Week, CMA Fest, LASSO Music Festival and Denim on the Diamond Festival, and surpassed more than 12 million global streams less than two years after releasing his debut EP, Feels Country To Me.

That success may not surprise his former teammates, who were some of the first people to encourage McPhee to share his talents.

After being traded from the Everett Silvertips to the Kootenay ICE in 2013, another former ‘Tips skater nominated him as the ICE’s own in-house musician.

“It just started with our after-practice, training hangouts,” McPhee recalled. “It would just be, like, play a song, and then they joked about making a YouTube account just to post covers on. I was like, oh, yeah, sure. Like, why not? I think it was a cover of one of Hunter Hayes’ first big hits, and that was the first one that was up on YouTube. The guys were sharing it around and I think it became, like, less of a joke at that point. They were like, ‘You’re actually not bad!'”

Hey, not bad is a pretty glowing review from a group of junior hockey players.

Those videos went a lot further than the group ever anticipated.

Stories of the singing hockey player spread around the league- ICE winger Brock Montgomery passed on McPhee’s number to a cousin who worked at a country music radio station, who, in turn, put McPhee on the radar of country music heavyweight Aaron Pritchett.

“We’re on the bus getting ready to go, through an Alberta swing, and I had this, like, random Vancouver area code calling me,” McPhee said. “This was pretty quickly after I got traded, so I don’t know if I had everybody’s phone contacts from the team. I thought it was like somebody on the team calling me. I picked it up… And he was like, ‘Hey, man, this is Aaron Pritchett.’ And I thought it was a prank. So I actually hung up the phone, because I was like, there’s no way I’m going to fall for it. Then, about a minute or two later, Brock came on the bus, and he says, ‘Hey, did Aaron call you yet?’ I was like, ‘Aaron who?’ He’s like, ‘Aaron Pritchett!’, and I’m like, “Dude, no. You should have told me this.”

Thankfully, Aaron called back, and I apologized, but it’s still a story to this day that’s just so funny. He’s always been like a huge supporter of mine, and we’ve become very good friends over the years.”

After years of playing junior hockey together, Sam Reinhart is one of Zach McPhee’s biggest supporters ❤️ #LASSO pic.twitter.com/Y2Ss9MkgJA

— MuchMusic (@Much) August 21, 2024

McPhee ended up playing four seasons in the WHL before using his scholarship to study sociology and continue playing at the University of Regina, all the while writing new songs and plucking away at his guitar. He even decided to forgo a professional hockey opportunity overseas in favour of heading back to the Okanagan to join RINK Kelowna and pursue music further.

“The beauty about hockey and music is there is a crossover,” McPhee added. “Like the time management skills that you learn with hockey, how to balance social life with a kind of competitive atmosphere and the hard work that it takes. Hockey is a very, very hard industry if you want to go pro, and then with playing country stuff, it’s kind of the same. You’re always looking to be competitive and you’re trying to get your songs out there and promote and play shows.”

Since 2023, things have been happening quickly.

After releasing his first seven-song EP, McPhee found a breakthrough with the single ‘Who Knew’ in August of 2024, was featured on the cover of Apple Music’s Canada Country playlist and won the 2024 SiriusXM Top of the Country competition.

“Our final stop was in Edmonton last year, at the CCMAs (Canadian Country Music Awards) in September,” McPhee explained. “At the finale performance, it was me, Robert Adam from Alberta, and Trudy from Quebec, who were the top three. They’re both amazing people, super talented artists. And we became very, very close. We had a three-song finale performance, and I just felt really good. It was like one of those things where I think everything just hit perfectly. It was a great show. The band was unbelievable.

“I just remember hearing them call me as the winner, and I kind of blacked out. I  didn’t know what happened. Emotions just took over because my fiancé has sacrificed a lot, especially having a little one at home. For me to be able to go and do it right, it was a super, super cool moment.”

Shortly after winning the competition, McPhee was signed by RLive, the Management and Artist Development arm of Republic Live, and has already seen new doors in music start to swing open.

His latest release, ‘Smoke’, has spent 19 weeks on Billboard’s Canadian Country music charts and currently sits in the 16th spot, and he recently captured Album of the Year and the Ray Mcauley Emerging Artist Award at the annual B.C. Country Music Association Awards.

Not only is McPhee still working full-time with RINK Kelowna as the Player Development Coordinator for six academy teams, he’s marrying his fiance, Addie, in a month, recording new music, and is set to perform at the annual Boots ‘N Boats festival in the Okanagan, open for Canadian country music star Tim Hicks, and close out August at Canada’s largest camping and music festival, Boots and Hearts.